Communications system providing asynchronous communications over the internet and related methods

ABSTRACT

A communications system may include a client device for generating email processing jobs and a proxy server communicating asynchronously over the Internet with the client device for processing the email processing jobs. The client device may post a given email processing job to the proxy server with a unique job identifier (ID), and the proxy server thereafter may post job results for the given email processing job to the client device also with the unique job ID. The client device may also advantageously post at least one other email processing job to the proxy server over the Internet at a time between posting the given email processing job and receiving the job results therefor.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to the field of communications systems,and, more particularly, to electronic mail (email) communicationssystems and related methods.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Electronic mail (email) has become an integral part of business andpersonal communications. As such, many users have multiple emailaccounts for work and home use. Moreover, with the increasedavailability of mobile cellular and wireless local area network (LAN)devices that can send an receive emails, many users wirelessly accessemails stored in source mailboxes of different email storage servers(e.g., corporate email storage server, Yahoo, Hotmail, AOL, etc.).

Yet, email distribution and synchronization across multiple mailboxesand over wireless networks can be quite challenging, particularly whenthis is done on a large scale for numerous users. For example, differentemail accounts may be configured differently and with non-uniform accesscriteria. Moreover, as emails are received at the wirelesscommunications device, copies of the emails may still be present in theoriginal mailboxes, which can make it difficult for users to keep theiremail organized.

One particularly advantageous “push” type email distribution andsynchronization system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,779,019 toMousseau et al., which is assigned to the present Assignee and is herebyincorporated herein in its entirety by reference. This system is forpushing user-selected data items from a host system to a user's mobiledata communication device upon detecting the occurrence of one or moreuser-defined event triggers. The user may then move (or file) the dataitems to a particular folder within a folder hierarchy stored in themobile data communications device, or may execute some other systemoperation on the data item. Software operating at the mobile device andthe host system then synchronizes the folder hierarchy of the mobiledevice with a folder hierarchy of the host system, and any actionsexecuted on the data items at the mobile device are then automaticallyreplicated on the same data items stored at the host system, thuseliminating the need for the user to manually replicate actions at thehost system that have been executed at the mobile data communicationdevice.

The foregoing system advantageously provides great convenience to usersof wireless email communication devices for organizing and managingtheir email messages. Yet, further convenience and efficiency featuresmay be desired in email distribution and synchronization systems asemail usage continues to grow in popularity.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is schematic block diagram of a direct access electronic mail(email) distribution and synchronization system in accordance with thepresent invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic block diagram of an exemplary embodiment of userinterface components of the direct access proxy of the system of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a schematic block diagram of an exemplary embodiment of theWeb client engine of the system of FIG. 1.

FIGS. 4 is a schematic block diagram of an exemplary embodiment of themobile office platform engine machine for use in the system of FIG. 1.

FIG. 5 is a schematic block diagram of an exemplary embodiment of thedatabase module of the system of FIG. 1.

FIG. 6 is a sequence diagram illustrating an asynchronous communicationapproach for communicating between the Web client engine and mobileoffice platform of FIG. 1 over the Internet.

FIGS. 7 and 8 are flow diagrams illustrating asynchronous communicationmethods for communicating between the Web client engine and mobileoffice platform of FIG. 1 over the Internet.

FIG. 9 is a schematic block diagram illustrating exemplary components ofa mobile wireless communications device for use with the presentinvention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The present invention will now be described more fully hereinafter withreference to the accompanying drawings, in which preferred embodimentsof the invention are shown. This invention may, however, be embodied inmany different forms and should not be construed as limited to theembodiments set forth herein. Rather, these embodiments are provided sothat this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fullyconvey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art. Likenumbers refer to like elements throughout, and prime notation is used toindicate similar elements in alternate embodiments.

The present description is directed to a communications system and, moreparticularly, to a direct access electronic mail system. Thecommunications system may generally be summarized as including a clientdevice for generating email processing jobs, and a proxy servercommunicating asynchronously over the Internet with the client devicefor processing the email processing jobs. The client device may post agiven email processing job to the proxy server with a unique jobidentifier (ID), and the proxy server thereafter may post job resultsfor the given email processing job to the client device also with theunique job ID. Moreover, the client device may also advantageously postat least one other email processing job to the proxy server over theInternet in a time between posting the given email processing job andreceiving the job results therefor.

Because the client device and the proxy server communicateasynchronously with one another, the client device need not wait for aresponse to its request to process the given processing job beforeposting another job(s). This provides enhanced efficiency since theclient device is able to generate and process other new jobs withouthaving to wait on the proxy server. Yet, since the proxy server has aunique ID to identify each job, it is therefore able to respond to theclient device with the job results when they are available in such a waythat the client device can recognize which job the results areassociated with and act accordingly.

In accordance with another advantageous aspect, the client device mayalso generate and post calendar processing jobs to the proxy server, andthe proxy server may processes and post results for the calendarprocessing jobs to the client device. Similarly, the client device mayalso generate and post address book and/or document retrieval processingjobs to the proxy server, and the proxy server may processes and postresults therefor to the client device.

In particular, the client device and the proxy server may communicateasynchronously over the Internet at a physical layer. Furthermore, theclient device may post the given email processing job to the proxyserver using a Web Distributed Authoring and Versioning (WebDAV)protocol. Also, the client device may post the given processing job to arequest hypertext transport protocol (HTTP) address, and the proxyserver may post the job results for the given processing job to aresponse HTTP address different than the request HTTP address.

The communications system may further include at least one wirelesshandheld communications device cooperating with the client device togenerate the email processing jobs. Moreover, the proxy server mayinclude a queue for storing processing jobs posted by the client deviceprior to processing. In addition, the proxy server may generate anacknowledgement to the client device upon receiving the posted givenprocessing job, and the client device may similarly generate anacknowledgement to the proxy server upon receiving the posted jobresults for the given processing job.

A related communications method aspect may include generating emailprocessing jobs at a client device, and posting a given email processingjob from the client device to a proxy server over the Internet with aunique job identifier (ID). The method may further include processingthe given email processing job at the proxy server and posting jobresults for the given email processing job to the client device over theInternet also with the unique job ID. Also, at least one other emailprocessing job may be posted from the client device to the proxy serverover the Internet in a time between posting the given email processingjob and receiving the job results therefor.

Referring initially to FIG. 1, a direct access (DA) email distributionand synchronization system 20 allows direct access to different mailsources, allowing messages to be transferred directly to a mobilewireless handheld device from a source mailbox. As a result, differentmail stores need not be used for integrated external source mailaccounts, and a permanent copy of an email in a local email store is notrequired.

Although this diagram depicts objects as functionally separate, suchdepiction is merely for illustrative purposes. It will be apparent tothose skilled in the art that the objects portrayed in this figure canbe arbitrarily combined or divided into separate software, firmware orhardware components. Furthermore, it will also be apparent to thoseskilled in the art that such objects, regardless of how they arecombined or divided, can execute on the same computing device or can bearbitrarily distributed among different computing devices connected byone or more networks.

The direct access system 20 enables email users or subscribers to haveemail from third-party email services pushed to various mobile wirelesscommunications devices 25. Users need not create a handheld emailaccount to gain direct access to an existing external email account. Thedirect access system 20 may operate without performing aggregation asused in some prior art systems, in which emails are aggregated frommultiple different source mailboxes to a single target mailbox. In otherwords, email need not be stored in an intermediate target mailbox, butinstead may advantageously be accessed directly from a source mailstore.

As illustrated in FIG. 1, the direct access system 20 illustrativelyincludes a Web client (WC) engine 22 and a mobile office platform (MOP)24. These Web client engine 22 and mobile office platform 24 operatetogether to provide users with direct access to their email from mobilewireless communications devices 25 via one or more wirelesscommunications networks 27, for example. Both the Web client engine 22and the mobile office platform 24 may be located at the same location orat separate locations, and implemented in one or more servers. The webclient engine 22 illustratively includes a port agent 30 forcommunicating with the wireless communications devices 25 via thewireless communications network(s) 27, a worker 32, a supervisor 34, andan attachment server 36, which will be discussed further below. An alertserver 38 is shown in dashed lines, and in one preferred embodiment, isnot used, but could be part of the system in yet other embodiments.

The mobile office platform 24 illustratively includes a DA proxy 40, anda proxy application programming interface (API) 42 and a cache 44cooperating with the DA proxy. The mobile office platform 24 alsoillustratively includes a load balance and cache (LBAC) module 46, anevent server 48, a universal proxy (UP) Servlet 54, an AggCron module56, a mobile office platform (MOP) engine 58, and a database (DB) engine60, which will be discussed in further detail below. The Least RecentlyUsed (LRU) cache 41 caches new messages, and can release messages andobjects that were least recently used.

The supervisor 34 processes new mail notifications that it receives fromthe direct access proxy 40. It then assigns a job, in the form of a UserDatagram Protocol (UDP) packet, to the least-loaded worker 32, accordingto the most recent UDP heartbeat the supervisor 34 has received. Forpurposes of this description, heartbeat is a tool that monitors thestate of the server. Additionally, the supervisor 34 will receive a newservice book request from the direct access proxy 40 to send servicebooks to the mobile wireless communication device for new or changedaccounts. A service book can be a class that could contain all servicerecords currently defined. This class can be used to maintain acollection of information about the device, such as connectioninformation or services, such as an email address of the account.

The worker 32 is an intermediary processing agent between the supervisor34 and the port agent 30, and responsible for most processing in the Webclient engine 22. It will retrieve e-mail from a universal proxy 54, viaa direct access proxy, and format e-mail in Compressed MultipurposeInternet Mail Extension (CMIME) as a type of Multipurpose Internet MailExtension, and send it to the port agent 30, for further processing. Itsresponsibilities include the following tasks: (1) messages sent to andreceived from the handheld; (2) message reply, forward and morerequests; (3) Over-The-Air Folder Management operation (OTAFM); (4)attachment viewing; and (5) service book.

The port agent 30 acts as a transport layer between the infrastructureand the rest of the Web client engine 22. It is responsible fordelivering packets to and from the mobile wireless communicationsdevice. To support different integrated mailboxes with one device, morethan one service book can be used, and each service book can beassociated with one integrated mailbox. A port agent 30 can include oneServer Relay Protocol (SRP) connection to a relay, but it can alsohandle multiple SRP connections, and each connection may have a uniqueGlobally Unique Identifier (GUID) associated with a service book. Theattachment server 36 provides service for document/attachment conversionrequests from workers 32.

The direct access proxy 40 provides a Web-based Distributed Authoringand Versioning (WebDAV) interface that is used by the worker 32 toaccess account and mailbox information. This provides functionality tocreate, change and move documents on a remote server, e.g., a Webserver. The direct access proxy 40 typically will present anasynchronous interface to its clients. The LBAC module 46 is used by anotification server and the Web client engine 22 components to locatethe proper DA proxy for the handling of a request. The universal proxyServlet 54 abstracts access to disparate mail stores into a commonprotocol. The event server 48 responds to notifications of new messagesfrom corporate servers 52 and/or mail service providers 50, which may bereceived via the Internet 40, for example. The notifications arecommunicated to the direct access proxy 40 by the AggCron module 56 andthe event server 48 so that it may initiate checking for new mail onsource mailboxes 51, 53 of the mail service providers 50 and/orcorporate servers 52. The proxy API can be a Simple Object AccessProtocol (SOAP) Daemon 42 and is the primary interface with a database60, which is the primary data store for the mobile office platform 24.The AggCron module 56 may also periodically initiate polling for newmessages as well.

Turning additionally to FIGS. 6-8, the asynchronous communicationinterface between the DA proxy 40 and worker 32 is now furtherdescribed. Beginning at Block 200, the worker 32 generates emailprocessing jobs for the DA proxy 40, at Block 202, in response to thewireless devices 25, the supervisor 34, etc. At a time t1, the worker 32initiates a first connection with the DA proxy 40 and posts a givenemail processing job to the DA proxy over the Internet with a unique jobidentifier (ID), at Block 204, 204′. In the illustrated example, theunique job ID is “12345,” and the given email job is posted to an HTTPrequest receiving address associated with the DA proxy 40.

The given email job generated by the worker 32 also includes a responseHTTP address associated with the worker to which the DA proxy 40 willpost the job results, as well as the requisite components of the job tobe performed by the DA proxy in a body of the job, as shown in FIG. 6.It should be noted that the response HTTP address need not be includedin the job request in all embodiments. For example, the DA proxy 40 maystore one or more response HTTP addresses that is uses for responding toparticular jobs or clients, for example. That is, the DA proxy alreadyknows ahead of time what address it is to send job results to based uponthe particular type of job and/or the particular client device thatposts the job.

When the DA proxy 40 receives the given email processing job it mayoptionally send an acknowledgement (ack) to the DA proxy 40 at a time t2indicating that the job was successfully posted, at Block 212′. In theillustrated example, the ack is a “200 OK” command, but other ackcommands may be used in other embodiments. The ack may either serve toend the first connection between the worker 32 and the DA proxy 40, orsimply signify the end of the “transaction” of posting the job whileleaving the first connection open. Leaving the first connection open maybe more efficient in cases where numerous jobs are to be posted to theDA proxy, for example.

The DA proxy 40 processes the given email job, as discussed furtherbelow, and upon completing the job at a time t3 initiates a secondconnection with the worker 32 different than the first connection andposts job results to the worker at the designated response HTTP addressalso with the unique job ID, at Block 208, 208′. The results of theemail processing job are included in a body of the results message, asshown. Once the worker 32 receives the results of the given emailprocessing job, it may optionally send an ack to the DA proxy 40acknowledging receipt thereof at a time t4 (Block 214′), thus concludingthe illustrated method (Block 210). Here again, the ack may either serveto end the second connection between the worker 32 and the DA proxy 40,or simply signify the end of the transaction of posting the job resultswhile leaving the second connection open for posting results for otherjobs, for example.

The unique job ID advantageously allows the worker 32 to match theresults for the given email job to the original job post. In this way,the worker 32 may advantageously post one or more other email processingjobs to the DA proxy 40 over the Internet in a time between posting thegiven email processing job and receiving the job results therefor, i.e.,between times t2 and t3, at Block 206. This advantageously increases theefficiency of the worker 32 as it does not have to put later emailprocessing jobs on hold while awaiting results for a pending job fromthe DA proxy 40.

Because the worker 32 and the DA proxy 40 communicate asynchronouslywith one another (i.e., not posting jobs and results therefor over thesame connection), the worker need not wait for a response to its requestto process the given processing job before posting another job(s). Thisprovides enhanced efficiency since the worker 32 is able to generate andprocess other new jobs without having to wait on the DA proxy 40. Yet,since the DA proxy 40 has a unique ID to identify each job, it istherefore able to respond to the given worker 32 with the job resultswhen they are available in such a way that the worker can recognizewhich job the results are associated with and act accordingly. The DAproxy 40 stores pending jobs in the cache 44.

As further illustrated in FIG. 8, the worker 32 may generate, and the DAproxy 40 may process, other types of processing jobs besides emailprocessing jobs. As noted briefly above, the worker 32 may generate andpost calendar, address book and/or document retrieval processing jobs tothe DA proxy 40, as well as other types of jobs, and the DA proxyprocesses and posts results therefor to the client device as similarlydescribed above for the email processing jobs. For example, a calendaror address book processing job may include adding/deleting/updating acalendar or address entry on a user's desktop computer calendar oraddress book (e.g., a Microsoft Outlook calendar/address book, forexample). A document retrieval job may include fetching a desireddocument for a user from his desktop computer or other location on anetwork, as will be appreciated by those skilled in the art.

The asynchronous communications between the worker 32 and the DA proxy40 occur at a physical (PHY) network layer, as will be appreciated bythose skilled in the art. Furthermore, the worker 32 and the DA proxy 40may advantageously post requests/responses to one another using a WebDAVprotocol, as noted briefly above, although other suitable protocols mayalso be used.

The LBAC module 46 is used by a notification server and the Web clientengine 22 components to locate the proper DA proxy for the handling of arequest. The universal proxy servelet 54 abstracts access to disparatemail stores into a common protocol. The event server 48 responds tonotifications of new messages from corporate servers 52 and/or mailservice providers 50, which may be received via the Internet 40, forexample. The notifications are communicated to the Web client engine 22by the AggCron module 56 so that it may initiate checking for new mailon source mailboxes 51, 53 of the mail service providers 50 and/orcorporate servers 52. The proxy API (SOAP Daemon) 42 is the primaryinterface with a database 60, which is the primary data store for themobile office platform 24. The AggCron module 56 may also periodicallyinitiate polling for new messages as well.

FIG. 2 is a high-level block diagram showing user interface componentsof the direct access proxy 40. More particularly, the direct accessproxy 40 illustratively includes an identifier module 72 with variousdownstream proxy modules for different communication formats, such as aWireless Application Protocol (WAP) proxy module 74 and a HypertextMarkup Language (HTML) proxy module 76. Of course, it will beappreciated by those skilled in the art that other types of proxymodules for other communications formats may also be used.

The identifier module 72 provides a centralized authentication servicefor the direct access system 20 and other services. An authenticationhandshake may be provided between an ID service and direct access system20 to ensure that users have the proper credentials before they areallowed access to the direct access system 20. The ability to switchfrom managing a Web client to a direct access system, or vice versa, mayoccur without requiring the user to re-enter any login credentials. AnyWeb client and direct access may share session management information onbehalf of a user.

The WAP proxy 74 provides a wireless markup language (WML)-based userinterface for configuring source mailboxes with the mobile officeplatform 24. The HTML proxy 76 provides an HTML-based user interface forconfiguring of source mailboxes in the MOP 24. The proxy API 42 (SOAPDaemon) is the primary interface with the database 60. The engine 58 isa protocol translator that connects to a source mailbox to validateconfiguration parameters. The database 60 is the primary user data storefor the mobile office platform 24.

FIGS. 3, 4 and 5 illustrate respective Web client engine machines 80(FIG. 3), an engine machine 82 (FIG. 4), and database machine 84 (FIG.5). The Web client engine machine 80 illustratively includes thesupervisors 34, workers 36, and port agents 38. Relays 86 cooperate withthe port agents 38 using a GUID.

The engine machine 82 illustratively includes a direct access proxy 40,HTML proxy 76, WAP proxy 74, PDS module 88, UP Servlet 54, LBAC module46, a send-mail module 90, an secure mail client (SMC) server 92, asecure sockets layer (SSL) proxy 94, an aggregation engine 96, and eventserver 48. The SMC server 92 cooperates with corresponding SMC modulesresident on certain corporate networks, for example, to convey emaildata between the mobile office platform 24 and source mailboxes. Thedatabase machine 84 may include an aggregation application programminginterface (API) 100 as a SOAP Daemon, an administration console 102, anaggregation database 104, the AggCron module 56, an SMC directory server106, and a send mail module 90.

The various components of the Web client engine 22 may be configured torun on different machines or servers. The component binaries andconfiguration files may either be placed in a directory on the networkor placed on a local disk that can be accessed to allow the appropriatecomponents to run from each machine. In accordance with one exemplaryimplementation, deployment may include one supervisor, two workers, andone port agent for supporting 30,000 external source mailboxes, althoughother configurations may also be used. Actual production deployment maydepend on the results of load, performance and stress testing, as willbe appreciated by those skilled in the art.

For the mobile office platform 24 direct access components, modules andvarious functions, machines are typically installed in twoconfigurations, namely engine machines (FIG. 4) and database machines(FIG. 5). While these machines may have all of the above-describedcomponents installed on them, not all of these components need be activein all applications (e.g., aggregation may be used with systems that donot support push technology, etc.). Once again, actual productiondeployment may depend on the results of load, performance and stresstesting.

The mobile office platform 24 architecture in one known techniqueadvantageously uses a set of device/language-specific extensibleStylesheet Language (XSL) files, which transform application data intopresentation information. In one non-limiting example, a build processtakes a non-localized XSL file and generates a localized XSL file foreach supported language. When the XSL file is used, it is “compiled” inmemory and cached for repeated use. The purpose of pre-localizing andcaching the templates is to reduce the CPU cycles required to generate apresentation page.

Branding may also be performed. Initially, a localized XSL file maybuild a WAP application to access aggregated email accounts. A WAP proxyapplication may be localizable and support multiple WAP devices. Foreach logical page of an application, a device-specific XSL file may becreated, which may be localized for each language/country supported.This rendering scheme may support not only WAP devices, but also SMTP,HTML and POP proxies, for example. In branding, each page of a givenapplication may be customized for each different brand.

The branding of a page may be accomplished through XSL file imports,including the use of a Java application programming interface (API) forXML processing (JAXP) feature to resolve the imports dynamically. Thisneed not require that each combined page/brand template be compiled andcached. By way of example, in a sample template directory, first andsecond pages for a single language/country may be combined with brandedcounterparts to generate a plurality of distinct template combinations.It is also possible to profile memory requirements of an application byloading templates for a single language, device/application and brand.An HTML device may include a set of templates that are large compared toother devices.

In one known technique, the mobile office platform 24 advantageouslybuilds process and takes non-localized files and language-specificproperty files and combines them to make each non-localized XSL fileinto an XSL file for each supported language. A separate XSL file foreach language need not be used, and the language factor may be removedfrom the memory usage equation. A JAXP API may be used to extend XSLfile with Java classes. The extensions may take various forms, forexample, including extension elements and extension functions. Atemplate may be transformed by creating and initializing an extensionobject with a locale and passing an object to a transformer. The systemcan remove multiple imports and use less memory. HTML templates can usetemplate importing to enable template reuse, much like Java classes, andreuse other Java classes through a mechanism like derivation orimporting.

In the direct access system 20, users receive email on their mobilewireless communications devices 25 from multiple external accounts, andwhen replying to a received message, the reply-to and sent-from addressintegrity is preserved. For example, for a user that has an integratedYahoo! account (user@yahoo.com) and a POP3 account (user@pop3.com), ifthey receive an email at user@yahoo.com, their replies generated fromthe device 25 will appear to come from user@yahoo.com. Similarly, if auser receives an email at user@pop3.com, their replies will appear tocome from user@pop3.com.

Selection of the “sent from” address is also available to a user thatcomposes new messages. The user will have the ability to select the“sent from” address when composing a new message. Depending on thesource mailbox type and protocol, the message may also be sent throughthe source mail service. This functionality can be supported by sendinga configuration for each source mailbox, for example, as a non-limitingexample, a service book for each source mailbox 51, 53 to the mobilewireless communications device 25.

As noted above, a service book is a class that may include all servicerecords currently defined. This class may be used to maintain acollection of information about the device, such as connectioninformation. The service book may be used to manage HTTP connections andmail (CMIME) information such as account and hierachy. At mobilewireless communications devices 25, a delete service book request may besent when a source mailbox 51, 53 is removed from the account. Theservice book may also be resent to the device 25 with a viewable namethat gives the user some indication that the selection is no longervalid.

A sent items folder may also be “synchronized.” Any device-originatedsent messages may be propagated to a source account and stored in a sentmail folder, for example. Also, messages deleted on the device 25 maycorrespondingly be deleted from the source mailbox 51, 53. Anotherexample is that device-originated marking of a message as read or unreadon the device 25 may similarly be propagated to the source mailbox 51,53. While the foregoing features are described as source-dependent andsynchronizing one-way, in some embodiments certain synchronizationfeatures may in addition, or instead, propagate from the sourcemailbox/account to the handheld device, as will be appreciated by thoseskilled in the art.

When available, the mail service provider or corporate mail server maybe used for submission of outgoing messages. While this may not bepossible for all mail service providers or servers, it is preferrablyused when available as it may provide several advantages. For example,subscribers to AOL will get the benefit of AOL-specific features likeparental controls. Furthermore, AOL and Yahoo users, as non-limitingexamples, will see messages in their sent items folder, and messagesrouted in this manner may be more compliant with new spam policies suchas Sender Policy Framework (SPF) and Sender Id. In addition, messagessent via corporate mail servers 52 will have proper name resolution bothat the global address list level and the personal level. It should beunderstood, however, that the use of the mail service provider 50 todeliver mail may be dependant on partner agreements and/or protocol,depending upon the given implementation.

The architecture described above also advantageously allows for featuressuch as on-demand retrieval of message bodies and attachments andmultiple folder support. Morever, a “this-is-spam” button or indicatormay be used allowing company labels and other service provider-specificfeatures when supported by an underlying protocol, as will beappreciated by those skilled in the art.

One particular advantage of the direct access system 20 is that a userneed not configure an account before integrating additional accounts.However, a standalone email address may be used, and this addressadvantageously need not be tied to a mailbox size which the subscriberis required to manage. For example, the email account may be managed byan administrator, and any mail could be purged from the system after apre-determined period of time (i.e., time-based auto-aging with nomailbox limit for all users).

Additionally, all aspects of any integrated email account creation,settings and options may advantageously be available to the user fromtheir mobile wireless communications device 25 Thus, users need notvisit an HTML site and change a setting, create a filter, or performsimilar functions, for example. Of course, an HTML site may optionallybe used.

As a system Internet email service with the direct access system 20grows, ongoing emphasis may advantageously be placed on theadministrative site to provide additional information to carrieradministrators, support teams, and similar functions. However, in someinstances a mail connector may be installed on a personal computer, andthis functionality may not always be available from the mobile wirelesscommunications device.

The Web client engine 22 may advantageously support different featuresincluding message to handheld (MTH), message from handheld (MFH),forward/reply a message, request to view more for a large message (e.g.,larger than 2K), request viewing message attachment, and over the airfolder management (OTAFM). These functions are explained below.

For an MTH function, each email account integrated for a user is linkedwith the user device through a Web client service book. For each newmessage that arrives in the Web client user mailbox, a notification thatcontains the new message information will typically be sent to a Webclient engine supervisor component (FIG. 3), which in turn will assignthe job to an available worker with the least load in the system. Thechosen worker 32 will validate the user information and retrieve the newmessage from the user source mailbox and deliver it to the user device.

In an MFH function, MFH messages associated with a Web client servicebook are processed by the Web client engine 22 and delivered to theInternet 49 by the worker 32 via the simple mail transfer protocol(SMTP) or native outbox. If a user turns on the option to save the sentmessage to the sent items folder, the direct access proxy will save acopy of the sent message to this folder.

In a Forward/Reply/More function, the user can forward or reply an MTHor MFH message from the mobile wireless communications device 25 as longas the original message still existed in the direct access proxy cacheor in user mailbox. For MTH, the worker 32 may send the first 2K, forexample, or the whole message (whatever is less) to the user device. Ifthe message is larger than 2K, the user can request MORE to view thenext 2K of the message. In this case, the worker 32 will process theMore request by retrieving the original message from the user sourcemailbox, and send back the 2K that the device requests. Of course, insome embodiments more than 2K of message text (or the entire message)may be sent.

In an attachment-viewing function, a user can view a message attachmentof a popular document format (e.g., MS Word, MS Power Point, MS Excel,Word Perfect, PDF, text, etc.) or image format (GIF, JPEG, etc). Uponreceiving the attachment-viewing request, which is implemented in a formof the More request in this example, the worker 32 can fetch theoriginal message from the user source mailbox via the direct accessproxy, extract the requested attachment, process it and send result backto the user device. The processing requires that the original messagehas not been deleted from the user Web client mailbox.

In the save sent message to sent items folder function, if the userturns this option on, the worker 32 places a copy of each MFH messagesent from the user device in the user sent items folder in the mailbox.In over the air folder management, the Web client OTAFM servicemaintains any messages and folders in the user mailbox synchronized withthe user device over the air.

Whenever a message in the user source mailbox is Moved/Deleted, theassociated message on the device may also be Moved/Deleted accordingly,and vice-versa. When a message is Moved/Deleted on the device, theassociated message in the user Web client mailbox may also beMoved/Deleted accordingly. Similarly, when a folder isAdded/Removed/Renamed from the user Web client mailbox, the associatedfolder on the device may be Added/Removed/Renamed, and vice-versa.

The system 20 may advantageously support different subsets of variousmessaging features. For example, in the message to handheld function,the mobile office platform 24 may be responsible for connecting to thevarious source mailboxes 51, 53 to detect new emails. For each new mail,a notification is sent to the Web client engine 22 and, based on thisnotification, the supervisor 34 chooses one of the workers 32 to processthat email. The chosen worker will fetch additional account informationand the contents of the mail message from the direct access proxy 40 anddeliver it to the user device 25.

In a message sent from handheld function, the MFH could be given to thedirect access proxy 40 from the Web client worker 32. In turn, themobile office platform 24 delivers a message to the Internet 49 bysending through a native outbox or sending it via SMTP. It should beunderstood, however, that the native outbox, whenever possible, mayprovide a better user experience, especially when taking into accountcurrent anti-spam initiatives such as SPF and sender Id.

In a message deleted from handheld function, when a message is deletedfrom the device 25, the Web client engine 22 notifies the mobile officeplatform 24 via the direct access proxy 40. As such, the mobile officeplatform 24 can delete the same message on the source mailbox.

When handling More/Forward/Reply/Attachment viewing requests, the Webclient worker 32 may request an original mail from the direct accessproxy 40. It will then process the request and send the results to themobile wireless communications device 25. The architecture mayadditionally support on-demand retrieval of message parts and otherupgrades, for example.

Upon the integration of a new source mailbox 51, 53, the service booknotification from the alert server 38 may be sent to the supervisor 34,which assigns this notification to a worker 32 for sending out a servicerecord to the device. Each source mailbox 51, 53 may be associated witha unique service record. In this way, each MFH message is linked with asource mailbox 51, 53 based on the service record on the device.

The system 20 may also poll the integrated external mailboxesperiodically to check for new mail and to access any messages. Thesystem 20 may further incorporate optimizations for polling bandwidthfrom an aggregation component allowing a quick poll. The system 20 canalso advantageously support a large active user base and incorporate arapidly growing user base.

The topology of load balancing can be based on the size of a component'squeue and its throughput. These load statistics can be monitored by amechanism in one example called the UDP Heartbeat, as described before.If a component is overloaded or has a large queue size, the componentwill have less chance to get an assigned job from other components. Incontrast, a component will get more assigned jobs if it completes morejobs in the last few hours than other components. With this mechanism,the load could distribute over heterogeneous machine hardware, i.e.,components running on less power machines will be assigned fewer jobsthan those on machines with more power hardware.

General load balancing for any mobile office platform components can beaccomplished through the use of a load balancer module, for example, aBIG-IP module produced by F5 Networks of Seattle, Wash. BIG-IP canprovide load balancing and intelligent layer 7 switching, and can handletraffic routing from the Internet to any customer interfacing componentssuch as the WAP and HTML proxies. The use of a BIG-IP or similar modulemay provide the application with pooling capabilities, fault toleranceand session management, as will be appreciated by those skilled in theart.

Typically, access to a single-source mailbox 51, 53 can be from a singledirect access proxy 40 over a persistent connection. Any requests onbehalf of a particular user could persist to the same machine in thesame direct access clustered partition. As certain components aresystem-wide and will be handling work for users across many partitions,these components can be designed to determine which direct accesspartition to communicate with on a request-by-request basis.

The load balancer and cache (LBAC) 46 may support this function. TheLBAC 46 is a system-wide component that can perform two importantfunctions. The first of these function is that it provides a mappingfrom the device PIN to a particular direct access proxy 40, whilecaching the information in memory for both fast access and to save loadon the central database. Secondly, as the direct access proxy 40 will berun in clustered partitions, the LBAC 46 may distribute the load acrossall direct access proxies within any partition.

The LBAC 46 can be formed of different components. For example, the codewhich performs the load balancing can be an extended version of a securemail connector. The code can also perform lookups to the centraldatabase and cache the results (LBAC).

In one non-limiting example, when a worker requires that a direct accessproxy 40 perform work, it provides the LBAC 46 with a device PIN. TheLBAC 46 will discover which partition that PIN is associated with bylooking in its cache, or retrieving the partition identifier from acentral database (and caching the result). Once the partition is known,the LBAC 46 then consults its cache to see which direct access proxy inthat partition has been designated to handle requests for that PIN. Ifno mapping exists, the LBAC requests the PDS to create a new associationon the least loaded DA proxy 40 (again caching the result). Finally, theLBAC 46 responds to the worker 32 with the connection information forthe proper direct access proxy to handle that particular request.

The secure mail connector 88 may run in failover pairs, where one is anactive master and the other is a secondary standby. Internal datastructures may be replicated in real-time from the master to thestandby. Multiple LBACs 46 can be run for scalability and faulttolerance, but typically would require an external connection balancingcomponent, such as the BIG-IP component as explained before.

A receiving component in the Web client engine 22 saves the job that hasbeen assigned to it from other components to a job store on the diskbefore processing. It can update the status of the job and remove thejob from the job store when the job processing is completed. In case ofcomponent failure or if the process is restarted, it can recover thejobs from the job store and, based on the current statuses of thesejobs, continue processing these jobs to the next state, saving the timeto reprocess them from the beginning.

Any recovery from the standpoint of MTH/MFH can be achieved throughcurrent polling behavior and on the Web client engine 22 recoverymechanisms. From within the mail office platform components, until amessage has been successfully delivered to a Web client engine 22, thatmessage is not recorded in the partition database 60. During the nextpolling interval, the system can again “discover” the message andattempt to notify the Web client engine 22. For new mail events, if anevent is lost, the system can pick up that message upon receiving thenext event or during the next polling interval. For sources supportingnotifications, this interval could be set at six hours, as onenon-limiting example. For messages sent from the Web client engine 22,and for messages that have been accepted by the Web client engine,recovery can be handled by different Web client engine components.

The Web client engine 22 may advantageously be horizontally andvertically scalable. Multiple supervisors 34 can beregistered/configured with direct access proxies 40 to provide thedistribution of the notification load and the availability of engineservice. Multiple workers 32 and port agents 30 can run on the samemachine or across multiple machines to distribute load and achieveredundancy. As the number of users grows, new components can be added tothe system to achieve high horizontal scalability.

It is possible for a new component to be added to or removed from thesystem automatically without down time. Traffic can automatically bedelegated to a new component and diverted away from failed components.Each component within the mobile office platform 24 can be deployedmultiple times to achieve horizontal scalability. To achieve verticalscalability, each mobile office platform 24 component can be amulti-threaded process with a configurable number of threads to scaleunder heavy load. Pools of connections can be used to reduce theoverhead of maintaining too many open connections.

One example of a hand-held mobile wireless communications device 1000that may be used in accordance the system 20 is further described in theexample below with reference to FIG. 9. The device 1000 illustrativelyincludes a housing 1200, a keypad 1400 and an output device 1600. Theoutput device shown is a display 1600, which is preferably a fullgraphic LCD. Other types of output devices may alternatively beutilized. A processing device 1800 is contained within the housing 1200and is coupled between the keypad 1400 and the display 1600. Theprocessing device 1800 controls the operation of the display 1600, aswell as the overall operation of the mobile device 1000, in response toactuation of keys on the keypad 1400 by the user.

The housing 1200 may be elongated vertically, or may take on other sizesand shapes (including clamshell housing structures). The keypad mayinclude a mode selection key, or other hardware or software forswitching between text entry and telephony entry.

In addition to the processing device 1800, other parts of the mobiledevice 1000 are shown schematically in FIG. 9. These include acommunications subsystem 1001; a short-range communications subsystem1020; the keypad 1400 and the display 1600, along with otherinput/output devices 1060, 1080, 1100 and 1120; as well as memorydevices 1160, 1180 and various other device subsystems 1201. The mobiledevice 1000 is preferably a two-way RF communications device havingvoice and data communications capabilities. In addition, the mobiledevice 1000 preferably has the capability to communicate with othercomputer systems via the Internet.

Operating system software executed by the processing device 1800 ispreferably stored in a persistent store, such as the flash memory 1160,but may be stored in other types of memory devices, such as a read onlymemory (ROM) or similar storage element. In addition, system software,specific device applications, or parts thereof, may be temporarilyloaded into a volatile store, such as the random access memory (RAM)1180. Communications signals received by the mobile device may also bestored in the RAM 1180.

The processing device 1800, in addition to its operating systemfunctions, enables execution of software applications 1300A-1300N on thedevice 1000. A predetermined set of applications that control basicdevice operations, such as data and voice communications 1300A and1300B, may be installed on the device 1000 during manufacture. Inaddition, a personal information manager (PIM) application may beinstalled during manufacture. The PIM is preferably capable oforganizing and managing data items, such as e-mail, calendar events,voice mails, appointments, and task items. The PIM application is alsopreferably capable of sending and receiving data items via a wirelessnetwork 1401. Preferably, the PIM data items are seamlessly integrated,synchronized and updated via the wireless network 1401 with the deviceuser's corresponding data items stored or associated with a hostcomputer system.

Communication functions, including data and voice communications, areperformed through the communications subsystem 1001, and possiblythrough the short-range communications subsystem. The communicationssubsystem 1001 includes a receiver 1500, a transmitter 1520, and one ormore antennas 1540 and 1560. In addition, the communications subsystem1001 also includes a processing module, such as a digital signalprocessor (DSP) 1580, and local oscillators (LOs) 1601. The specificdesign and implementation of the communications subsystem 1001 isdependent upon the communications network in which the mobile device1000 is intended to operate. For example, a mobile device 1000 mayinclude a communications subsystem 1001 designed to operate with theMobitex™, Data TAC™ or General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) mobile datacommunications networks, and also designed to operate with any of avariety of voice communications networks, such as AMPS, TDMA, CDMA, PCS,GSM, etc. Other types of data and voice networks, both separate andintegrated, may also be utilized with the mobile device 1000.

Network access requirements vary depending upon the type ofcommunication system. For example, in the Mobitex and DataTAC networks,mobile devices are registered on the network using a unique personalidentification number or PIN associated with each device. In GPRSnetworks, however, network access is associated with a subscriber oruser of a device. A GPRS device therefore requires a subscriber identitymodule, commonly referred to as a SIM card, in order to operate on aGPRS network.

When required network registration or activation procedures have beencompleted, the mobile device 1000 may send and receive communicationssignals over the communication network 1401. Signals received from thecommunications network 1401 by the antenna 1540 are routed to thereceiver 1500, which provides for signal amplification, frequency downconversion, filtering, channel selection, etc., and may also provideanalog to digital conversion. Analog-to-digital conversion of thereceived signal allows the DSP 1580 to perform more complexcommunications functions, such as demodulation and decoding. In asimilar manner, signals to be transmitted to the network 1401 areprocessed (e.g. modulated and encoded) by the DSP 1580 and are thenprovided to the transmitter 1520 for digital to analog conversion,frequency up conversion, filtering, amplification and transmission tothe communication network 1401 (or networks) via the antenna 1560.

In addition to processing communications signals, the DSP 1580 providesfor control of the receiver 1500 and the transmitter 1520. For example,gains applied to communications signals in the receiver 1500 andtransmitter 1520 may be adaptively controlled through automatic gaincontrol algorithms implemented in the DSP 1580.

In a data communications mode, a received signal, such as a text messageor web page download, is processed by the communications subsystem 1001and is input to the processing device 1800. The received signal is thenfurther processed by the processing device 1800 for an output to thedisplay 1600, or alternatively to some other auxiliary I/O device 1060.A device user may also compose data items, such as e-mail messages,using the keypad 1400 and/or some other auxiliary I/O device 1060, suchas a touchpad, a rocker switch, a thumb-wheel, or some other type ofinput device. The composed data items may then be transmitted over thecommunications network 1401 via the communications subsystem 1001.

In a voice communications mode, overall operation of the device issubstantially similar to the data communications mode, except thatreceived signals are output to a speaker 1100, and signals fortransmission are generated by a microphone 1120. Alternative voice oraudio I/O subsystems, such as a voice message recording subsystem, mayalso be implemented on the device 1000. In addition, the display 1600may also be utilized in voice communications mode, for example todisplay the identity of a calling party, the duration of a voice call,or other voice call related information.

The short-range communications subsystem enables communication betweenthe mobile device 1000 and other proximate systems or devices, whichneed not necessarily be similar devices. For example, the short-rangecommunications subsystem may include an infrared device and associatedcircuits and components, or a Bluetooth™ communications module toprovide for communication with similarly-enabled systems and devices.

Many modifications and other embodiments of the invention will come tothe mind of one skilled in the art having the benefit of the teachingspresented in the foregoing descriptions and the associated drawings.Therefore, it is understood that the invention is not to be limited tothe specific embodiments disclosed, and that modifications andembodiments are intended to be included within the scope of the appendedclaims.

1. A communications system comprising: a client device for generatingemail processing jobs; and a proxy server communicating asynchronouslyover the Internet with said client device for processing the emailprocessing jobs; said client device posting a given email processing jobto said proxy server with a unique job identifier (ID), and said proxyserver thereafter posting job results for the given email processing jobto said client device also with the unique job ID; said client deviceposting at least one other email processing job to said proxy serverover the Internet at a time between posting the given email processingjob and receiving the job results therefor.
 2. The communications systemof claim 1 wherein said client device also generates and posts calendarprocessing jobs to said proxy server, and wherein said proxy serverprocesses and posts results for the calendar processing jobs to saidclient device.
 3. The communications system of claim 1 wherein saidclient device also generates and posts address book processing jobs tosaid proxy server, and wherein said proxy server processes and postsresults for the address book processing jobs to said client device. 4.The communications system of claim 1 wherein said client device alsogenerates and posts document retrieval processing jobs to said proxyserver, and wherein said proxy server processes and posts results forthe document retrieval processing jobs to said client device.
 5. Thecommunications system of claim 1 wherein said client device and saidproxy server communicate asynchronously over the Internet at a physicallayer.
 6. The communications system of claim 1 wherein said clientdevice posts the given email processing job to said proxy server using aWeb Distributed Authoring and Versioning (WebDAV) protocol.
 7. Thecommunications system of claim 1 further comprising at least onewireless handheld communications device cooperating with said clientdevice to generate the email processing jobs.
 8. The communicationssystem of claim 1 wherein said client device initiates a firstconnection with said proxy server to post the given email processingjob, and wherein said proxy server initiates a second connectiondifferent than the first connection with said client device for postingthe job results for the given email processing job.
 9. Thecommunications system of claim 1 wherein said proxy server comprises aqueue for storing processing jobs posted by said client device prior toprocessing.
 10. The communications system of claim 1 wherein said proxyserver sends an acknowledgement to said client device upon receiving theposted given processing job, and wherein said client device sends anacknowledgement to said proxy server upon receiving the posted jobresults for the given processing job.
 11. A communications systemcomprising: a client device for generating email and calendar processingjobs; and a proxy server communicating asynchronously over the Internetwith said client device for processing the email and calendar processingjobs; said client device posting a given email or calendar processingjob to said proxy server with a unique job identifier (ID), and saidproxy server thereafter posting job results for the given email orcalendar processing job to said client device also with the unique jobID; said client device posting at least one other email or calendarprocessing job to said proxy server over the Internet at a time betweenposting the given email or calendar processing job and receiving the jobresults therefor.
 12. The communications system of claim 11 wherein saidclient device also generates and posts document retrieval processingjobs to said proxy server, and wherein said proxy server processes andposts results for the document retrieval processing jobs to said clientdevice.
 13. The communications system of claim 11 wherein said clientdevice and said proxy server communicate asynchronously over theInternet at a physical layer.
 14. The communications system of claim 11wherein said client device initiates a first connection with said proxyserver to post the given email or calendar processing job, and whereinsaid proxy server initiates a second connection different than the firstconnection with said client device for posting the job results for thegiven email or calendar processing job
 15. A communications systemcomprising: a client device for generating email and address bookprocessing jobs; and a proxy server communicating asynchronously overthe Internet with said client device for processing the email andaddress book processing jobs; said client device posting a given emailor address book processing job to said proxy server with a unique jobidentifier (ID), and said proxy server thereafter posting job resultsfor the given email or address book processing job to said client devicealso with the unique job ID; said client device posting at least oneother email or address book processing job to said proxy server over theInternet at a time between posting the given email or address bookprocessing job and receiving the job results therefor.
 16. Thecommunications system of claim 15 wherein said client device alsogenerates and posts document retrieval processing jobs to said proxyserver, and wherein said proxy server processes and posts results forthe document retrieval processing jobs to said client device.
 17. Thecommunications system of claim 15 wherein said client device and saidproxy server communicate asynchronously over the Internet at a physicallayer.
 18. The communications system of claim 15 wherein said clientdevice initiates a first connection with said proxy server to post thegiven email processing job, and wherein said proxy server initiates asecond connection different than the first connection with said clientdevice for posting the job results for the given email processing job.19. A communications method comprising: generating email processing jobsat a client device; posting a given email processing job from the clientdevice to a proxy server over the Internet with a unique job identifier(ID); processing the given email processing job at the proxy server andposting job results for the given email processing job to the clientdevice over the Internet also with the unique job ID; and posting atleast one other email processing job from the client device to the proxyserver over the Internet at a time between posting the given emailprocessing job and receiving the job results therefor.
 20. The method ofclaim 19 further comprising: generating calendar processing jobs at theclient device and posting the calendar processing jobs to the proxyserver; and processing the calendar processing jobs at the proxy serverand posting results therefor to the client device.
 21. The method ofclaim 19 further comprising: generating address book processing jobs atthe client device and posting the address book processing jobs to theproxy server; and processing the address book processing jobs at theproxy server and posting results therefor to the client device.
 22. Themethod of claim 19 further comprising: generating document retrievalprocessing jobs at the client device and posting the document retrievalprocessing jobs to the proxy server; and processing the documentretrieval processing jobs at the proxy server and posting resultstherefor to the client device.
 23. The method of claim 19 wherein theclient device and the proxy server communicate asynchronously over theInternet at a physical layer.
 24. The method of claim 19 wherein postingthe given email processing job comprises posting the given emailprocessing job to the proxy server using a Web Distributed Authoring andVersioning (WebDAV) protocol.
 25. The method of claim 19 wherein saidclient device initiates a first connection with said proxy server topost the given email processing job, and wherein said proxy serverinitiates a second connection different than the first connection withsaid client device for posting the job results for the given emailprocessing job.